UC-Irvine (11-8, 3-0) at Long Beach State (6-14, 1-3) – 10:00 PM EST (ESPN3)
Tonight’s late-night edition of the UTR Game of the Day takes us to the West Coast for the first leg of the Black-and-Blue rivalry between the Anteaters of UC-Irvine and the Long Beach State whatever-they’re-called these days (no longer 49ers). UC-Irvine did struggle a bit by their recent standards in the noncon season, although they did manage a couple of noteworthy wins at Boise State and against Kent State in the Sun Bowl Classic played at UTEP. The Anteaters are off to a 3-0 start that includes a 69-53 win in the RiverVine Cup against UC-Riverside in their last outing. Collin Welp leads Irvine with 14.4 points a game and 6.6 rebounds a game.
Long Beach did get one notable nonconference win during the Wooden Legacy – they beat Providence in the 2nd round of that tournament en route to a sixth place finish overall. This season has been a tough one for Dan Monson’s crew – it looked like they were starting decently well in league play with a split in their season-opening roadie with a win against UC-Santa Barbara and a loss against Cal State-Northridge, but they have now lost back-to-back home games against UC-Davis and Cal State-Fullerton. Chance Hunter leads LBSU with 14.7 points a game and also averages 5.2 rebounds a game as well.